Chapter 5

Cami

“Are you and Xander dating?” Natalie asked as I practically ran from the band room.

“No!” When I answered a little too forcefully, I decided to try again. “No, we aren’t dating. I can see why you might think that since there’s been some social media speculation about us, but we’re just friends.”

“Does he know that?” she asked. “Sorry. I hardly know you, so you don’t need to answer that question.”

“He knows,” I assured her. “As you may have noticed, Xan likes to flirt. If they made flirting an Olympic sport, he’d win a gold medal.” As the words left my mouth, I almost groaned at how lame they sounded.

“Your interaction was intense,” she added.

Intense accurately described my interaction with Xander. “We’re just friends,” I insisted.

She nodded, still looking doubtful. “That may be the case, but I won’t be surprised if I see #XanandCam trending soon.”

I laughed and shook my head. “Stranger things have happened.” I was a firm believer in never saying never. I waved at Corey as we passed him. “Thanks, Corey.”

He nodded in response. Corey was a man of few words.

Once we were in the club area, Natalie threw her arms around me. “Thank you so much for getting me back there. It was amazing.”

“You’re welcome,” I replied. “You made their day by having that old CD.”

“I’d better go find my boyfriend,” she told me before disappearing into the crowd.

“There you are!”

“It can’t be,” I muttered to myself when I heard Mitch’s voice. Sure enough, when I turned, he was standing right behind me. He looked out of place in the club in his dark suit and striped tie. Most would consider Mitch handsome. He was just shy of six feet tall with an athletic frame and almost boyish features. His pale blond hair was always perfectly styled. “What are you doing here?”

I wasn’t usually rude to my exes, but Mitch refused to accept that we weren’t getting back together. In the ten days since I’d ended things with him, he’d called me dozens of times and even stopped by both my office and home to talk to me.

Mitch frowned. “We agreed to go to the show together.”

The kicked puppy expression wasn’t going to work on me. I’d done nothing to make Mitch think we still had a date for the show.

“And then we broke up. I thought you were going to sell your ticket.” He’d said he was going to sell his ticket.

He shrugged and moved closer. “I just wanted to see you. Let me keep you company. We can talk and have some fun together.”

Since we were in a loud, crowded club, there were good reasons for him to move closer, but I didn’t want him closer.

“I’m here with friends,” I said with a tight smile.

He looked around. “You look like you’re alone. We need to talk. You owe me an explanation.”

“I gave you an explanation,” I reminded him before turning to walk away. Mitch caught my arm to stop me.

“Don’t walk away from me, Cami.” He sounded angry.

“Get your fucking hands off of her.”

When I turned toward the sound of Xander’s voice, I saw that we were attracting a crowd—no surprise since they’d come to see Reckless Release.

Mitch didn’t release me right away; instead, his eyes locked with mine. “Come on, Cami. Let’s go somewhere to talk. There’s no reason for this to turn into some ugly scene.”

Corey, having seen what was going on, was at Xander’s side.

“Let me go,” I told Mitch.

Mitch’s gaze shifted to Xander and Corey. Xander looked pissed, while Corey looked curious to see what would happen next. “Fine,” he finally spat out before releasing my arm and storming off.

Xander slipped an arm around my shoulders, bringing even more attention to the scene. “You okay, babe?” He leaned closer so he wouldn’t have to yell.

“I’m fine.” It was a lie. Mitch’s behavior shook me. He’d never acted that way before. Still, we had an audience, and I wasn’t interested in adding to the gossip. There would be pictures of us on social media the next day. It wouldn’t be the first time. There had been more than a few articles written about my relationship with Xander—bad pictures and all. In most articles, they assumed I was dating him. In a few, they came up with more elaborate stories about me being a long-lost sister or Xander’s therapist. The last was the most laughable since I only worked with children. In general, the speculation didn’t bother me, but I preferred to avoid the love triangle stories our situation might inspire.

Xander removed his arm from my shoulders and took a step back, possibly envisioning the same scenario I was. It was hard to tell with Xander.

Bentley came to my rescue, getting me away from the gawkers and Xander by grabbing my arm. “Crazy exes always make me want to drink. Let’s hit the bar.”

“I shouldn’t have come tonight,” I muttered to myself. It’s easy talking to yourself in a club. Unless you speak loudly, no one can hear you, so I continued talking to myself.

“I see your lips moving,” Bentley told me when we reached the bar. “Would you like to go somewhere quiet to talk to me instead of talking to yourself?”

“No,” I replied. “I think I’m done talking to myself.”

“What the hell is Mitch doing here?” Piper asked as she came up beside me.

“We were originally supposed to come together.” I paused, deciding to give them the highlights. “He’s a dick who can’t take a hint. Why pretend there’s some other story to explain his presence?”

“How many times do you need to tell him it’s over?” Bentley asked. “I’m beginning to think you need to get a restraining order.”

“Restraining order?” Piper asked. “What have I missed?”

Bentley was the only one who knew the problems I’d been having with Mitch. He hadn’t threatened me, but he wouldn’t leave me alone, no matter how many times I told him I wasn’t interested.

“Mitch keeps calling and showing up,” I explained. “I’m not sure that’s enough to justify a restraining order, but if he keeps pushing, I’ll look into it.”

“What is his problem?” Piper asked.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “The first time I broke up with Mitch, he didn’t seem phased by it at all. This time, he refuses to accept it’s over. His behavior makes no sense.”

“It does seem crazy,” Piper replied.

We ordered our drinks and chatted for a few minutes while we waited. When I turned away from the bar, I let out a little squeal as I came face to chest with Xander. At least, it wasn’t his bare chest again. I’d expected him to be busy with his fans.

“Don’t sneak up on me!” I shouted.

Xander chuckled, putting his hands up in surrender when I smacked his belly. “I wasn’t sneaking up on you. It’s loud, so you just didn’t hear me. I wanted to make sure you’re okay and to let you know Corey walked Glitch out of the club.”

“You guys forced Mitch to leave?” I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. It would only feed into the drama, but I was still glad Mitch was gone.

Xander shook his head. “He was already heading in that direction. Corey just followed him to make sure he left. It was also so he could keep an eye on Glitch if he stayed. Are you okay, babe?” he asked, placing a hand on my shoulder.

The heat from his hand shot straight through my body as my voice of reason reminded me it wasn’t okay to get turned on by Xander. My body wasn’t listening, and I felt a dull throbbing ache of arousal in my core.

I forced a smile. “I’m fine. Mitch is a jerk, but I’m not about to let him ruin my night.”

Based on Xander’s expression, he wasn’t buying my answer, but he didn’t call me on it. “Let’s go have some fun,” he coaxed.

“I want to dance,” Bentley announced as she grabbed my arm to lead me to the dancefloor.

One of the beautiful things about having Bentley as a friend was she knew me well enough to recognize when I was feeling out of sorts. I wasn’t sure if she could tell I was turned on by Xander or not. It didn’t matter since she was still rescuing me.

As Bentley led me out to the dancefloor, I felt Xander’s hot gaze on my back. It was all I could do not to turn around, but I knew that would be a mistake. I needed a little space from Xander before I did something I’d regret.